The Vikings' Sage Rosenfels is in his 12th season as an NFL quarterback. He has backed up the likes of Brett Favre with the Vikings and Eli Manning with the New York Giants.

"I feel like I've been around some of the better ones, the really good ones," Rosenfels said Wednesday, Aug. 22.

Now Rosenfels, 34, is backing up second-year quarterback Christian Ponder, 24, and watching his development on a daily basis.

"I feel he still has his ups and downs, which every young player does -- and veteran players, too -- but he's getting more and more consistent," Rosenfels said.

"Every practice, he's generally playing better and better. In just the last couple of weeks I've really seen a lot of improvement. He's getting some confidence, playing well in these first two preseason games, and that's what he needs, especially from last year, when he struggled at the end of the season."

Among a cavalcade of local sports legends gathered for lunch at Shamrock's pub in St. Paul on Thursday was 6-foot-9 Jim Beattie, who had a noteworthy role in the 1970 boxing film, "The Great White Hope."

Beattie, 70, is a precious-metals dealer who lives in Edina. The former Golden Gloves heavyweight who was rushed to New York City not long after graduating from St. Paul Murray High School in 1960 to nurture a professional boxing career still receives residual checks whenever "The Great White Hope" plays on TV, usually on cable.

Advertisement

"The first couple of times I got $1,500," Beattie said. "Then it went to $500. The last (check) I got, a couple of years ago, was for $5."

Beattie smiled. During his career, he lost a controversial fight against world heavyweight contender Buster Mathis. He accepted a personal invitation from pal Muhammad Ali to fight Leroy Jones in Denver. He won 46 pro fights by knockouts.

Former world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes once listed Beattie among the hardest punchers in boxing.

And now, 42 years after appearing in "The Great White Hope," Beattie has accepted an invitation for a role in a family movie, "The Ark," that soon will begin filming in St. Louis and Australia. It will be Beattie's 10th appearance in a movie, mostly small films, he said.

Waived from the major league roster, ex-Twin Nick Blackburn lost 1-0 starting for Rochester against Lehigh Valley on Wednesday night.

The Twins' $6 million bonus signee from June's draft, outfielder Byron Buxton, 18, had a triple among three hits for Elizabethton in a 4-3 loss to Greenville on Wednesday. In 15 games for Elizabethton, Buxton, 18, is hitting .268 after batting .216 in 27 games for the Fort Myers Twins of the rookie league Gulf Coast League.

Tony Jacklin, who won the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine National, returns Sept. 7-8 for a 50th anniversary of the opening of the Chaska course.

Former Wild assistant general manager Tom Lynn, who recently returned from the Czech Republic, where he watched Team USA in the Ivan Hlinka world hockey tournament, said Burnsville's Teemu Kivihalme was the top U.S. defenseman and should be one of the top Americans in next June's NHL draft. Defenseman Tommy Vannelli of Minnetonka also improved his draft stock.

Former University of St. Thomas star Fritz Waldvogel has 27 touchdowns in nine games for the first-place (10-1) Schwabisch Hall Unicorns in the German Football League.

Concordia-St. Paul baseball coachesMark and Marcus McKenzie and Steve Butler were to leave Thursday for Cary, N.C., to evaluate players for next summer's 16-Under and 18-Under USA national team trials.

Marcus McKenzie was involved in the selection process for this year's 18-Under USA team that included Ryan Boldt of Red Wing. The 20-player team will compete in Seoul, South Korea, next week in the world championships.

Kent Hrbek received a text message from close pal and former Twins World Series teammate Gary Gaetti, 54, who on Saturday night will manage Roger Clemens, 50, on the Sugar Land (Texas) Skeeters independent minor league team near Houston against the Bridgeport (Conn.) Bluefish.

"It's a pretty fun league that he's managing in, and you can get anyone you want to pitch for you," Hrbek said. "It's a pretty interesting thing, a little gimmick."

Gaetti went from being a hitting coach for the Houston Astros to operating a hitting school.

"When the G-man dives into things, he doesn't test the water; he jumps in," Hrbek said. "It sounds like he's having fun. That's the main thing."

Hrbek was hoping Gaetti would make it to Target Field on Sept. 8 for the retirement ceremony of former Twins manager Tom Kelly's No. 10 jersey. But Gaetti doubted he would be able to make it because of his managing responsibilities.

"There are a bunch of guys coming in for that, and it would be fun to have G-man there because he's known T.K. longer than I have," Hrbek said. "But if you've got other things going on, you have to take care of your own house first."

OVERHEARD

Vikings backup QB Sage Rosenfels on ex-Vikings QB Brett Favre: "He and I got along really well. I learned a lot about protections, how he tried to manipulate protections to pick up really tough blitzes."